Riots in Mombasa after killing of Muslim cleric

Associated Press

August 27, 2012

NAIROBI, Kenya — Gunmen in Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa shot dead a Muslim cleric accused by Washington and the United Nations of supporting al-Qaida-linked militants in Somalia, sparking rioting by youths in which one person died and at least one police car was burned.

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The killing Monday of Aboud Rogo fits into a pattern of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances of suspected terrorists that is allegedly being orchestrated by Kenyan police, Kenyan human rights groups say.

Rogo was shot dead as he drove with his family in Mombasa, Rogo's lawyer, Mbugua Mureithi, told The Associated Press. Rogo's wife was wounded in the leg, said Rogo's father who was also in the car along with Rogo's 5-year-old daughter. He said he and the girl weren't injured.

At the scene of the killing, Rogo's wife angrily accused police of the murder.

“It is you policemen who have killed him, we don't want a post-mortem or any help from you,” said Khaniya Said Sagar to police who came to assist her.

Khaniya said that she was being taken to hospital for check after she had miscarriage two weeks ago.

Rogo's killing quickly sparked off protests by hundreds of Muslim youths who went on the rampage on the streets of Mombasa, as his body was being taken for burial, in line with Muslim customs of burying the dead on the same day they died.

The Muslim Human Rights Forum condemned Rogo's murder, calling it an “extrajudicial killing” and calling for an “an end to targeted killings and enforced disappearances of terrorism suspects.”

MHRF Chairman Al-Amin Kimathi said that last month Rogo and Abubakar Shariff Ahmed, who were both suspects in a terror-related case, survived an abduction attempt by gunmen they claimed were state agents who accosted them as they arrived in the capital city.

The abduction attempt was foiled by members of the public who came to their aid when the two shouted for help as they resisted the heavily armed men, Kimathi said.